Furnace for roasting ores.



N0. 652,|93. Patenied June 19, I90!)u H. B. MEECH.

FURNACE FOR ROASTING OBES.

(Application filed Oct. 11, 1899.)

3 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

No. 652,l93. Patented lune I9, 1900. H. B. MEECH.

FURNACE FUR RUASTING ORES.

(Apylica-tion filed Oct. 11, 1899.) (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

6 m N :1 N 2 W NORRIS PsTzns co, mmaumu. WASHINGTON, n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRISON B. MEEOH, OF DENVER, COLORADO.

FURNACE FOR ROASTING ORES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 652,193, dated June 19,.1900.

Application filed October 11, 1899. Serial Il'o.733,291. (N model.)

To Cl/ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HARRISON B. MEEOH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Denver, in the county of Arapahoe and State of Colorado,have invented new and useful Improvements in Furnaces for Roasting Ores,of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to produce an economical,compact, andeasily-operated fur nace for roasting ores.

The invention consists in a roasting-furnace havinga number of ovens,one above the other, and mechanism for automatically feeding said orefrom one oven to another from the top to the bottom of said furnace.

The invention further consists in the combination, with aroasting-furnace, of a reverberatory furnace so constructed and arrangedthat the heated gases from the reverberatory furnace shall pass throughthe roasting-furnace and assist in roasting the ores in saidroasting-furnace.

The invention further consists in certain improved construction andarrangement of parts set forth in the following specification, andparticularly pointed out in the claims thereof.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improvedroasting-furnace. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section, line 2 2, Fig. 1. Fig.3 is a vertical section, line 3 3, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a side elevation ofthe retort and furnace doors and a portion of the furnace broken away tosave space in the drawings, said elevation being from the left ofFig. 1. Fig. 5 is a detail horizontal section, line 5 5, Fig. 4, throughthe retorts. Fig. 6- is an enlarged horizontal section through a portionof one series of shovel-carrying arms. Fig. 7 is a transverse section,line 7 7, Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is a vertical section, line 8 8, Fig. 6. Fig. 9is an enlarged detail transverse section through one of the feed-wheels,line 9 9, Fig. 2. Fig. 10 is a plan detail of a portion of thewheel-actuating mechanism. Fig. 11 is a longitudinal section of aroasting-furnace similar to that shown in Fig. 3 in combination with areverberatory smelting-furnace. Fig. 12 is an end elevation of thereverberatory furnace viewed from the left of Fig. 11. Fig. 13 is an endelevation of the reverberatoryfurnace viewed from the right of Fig. 11.Fig. 14 is a vertical longitudinal section of one of the retorts 47 inthe roasting-furnace. Fig.15is a transverse section through one of theretorts 47, taken on line 15 15, Fig. 14.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of thedrawings.

In the drawings, 1 is a cylindrical roastingfurnace having a series ofovens 2 2 2, one above the other. The beds 3 3 of said ovens are builtupon arches44 and are stepped-that is, the portion of the oven-bottom 5,where the ore is placed near the periphery, is lower than the portion 6near the center thereof.

The ore is placed in the hopper 7 and fed into the top oven 2 by arotary feed-wheel, which is rotated by a shaft 8, rotated by a pulley 9,fast to said shaft and rotated by a belt 10 (dotted) and pulley 11, fastto the main driving-shaft 12. The ore after passing into the oven 2,through the hopper 7, atthe point indicated in dotted lines, Fig. 2, iscarried around by shovels 13, fast to hollow arms 14, said arms beingfast to a center piece 15, said center piece 15 joining together twosections of the hollow vertical shaft 16. Said shaft 16 is rotated by abevel-gear 17, which meshes a bevel-gear 18, fast to the maindriving-shaft 12. The lower end of the shaft 16 has a flange 19 fastthereto and turns upon a ball-bearing 20. A drip-cock 21 upon the shaft16 allows water introduced at the top of said shaft to pass out into astationary trough or basin 22, whence it is carried by a pipe 23 to anydesired location. The flanged be seen that water introduced into thehollow vertical shaft 16 at the top thereof will pass downwardly untilit strikes the horizontal partition 24 in the top center piece 15, whereit will diverge outwardly in the upper chamcenter pieces 15 have ahorizontal partition.

ber of each of the four hollow arms 14 in the upper oven 2 until itreaches the outer end of said arms, when it will pass down through theopenings 26 to the lower side of the horizontal partitions 25, thencereturning to the center piece 15 and down through the next section ofthe vertical shaft 16 to the next center piece below,when the operationwill be repeated, and so on until the water reaches the drip-cock 21,when it will pass out, as hereinbefore described.

With the exception of the drip-cock the vertical shaft 16, center pieces15, and arms 14,

&c., are essentially the same as those illustrated and described inanother application made by me, Serial No. 707,799, filed March 4,1899.

The ore is carried around each oven by the shovels until it reaches anopening 27 in the bed thereof, when it is carried down through saidopening by an intermittently-rotated wheel 28, fast to a shaft 29. Saidwheel has blades 30 thereon, which close the opening 27 to the upwardpassage of the heated gases, but feeds the ores through said opening,when said wheelis rotated, from one oven to the next oven below.

It will be noted that there are no partitions in the ovens hereinbeforedescribed.

Each of the shafts 29 turns in bearings 31 31 and projects outside thewall of the furnace 1 and has a flanged sprocket-wheel 32 thereon'. Allof the sprockets 32 are rotated by an endless sprocket-chain 33, whichconnects the said sprockets together. The upper shaft 29 has a ratchet34 fast thereto and a pawllever 35 pivoted thereon. A pawl 36, pivotedtothe pawl-lever 35, engages the teeth of the ratchet 34. by a rod 37 tothe crank-pin 38 upon the disk 39. The disk 39 is fast to a shaft 40,which rotates in bearings 41 41, said shaft being rotated by abevel-gear 42, which meshes a gear 43, fast to the shaft 8. It will beseen that as the shaft is rotated the rod 37 will alternately raise andlower the pawl-lever 35, turning the ratchet step by step, rotating theshaft 29 and through the sprocket-chain 33 and sprocket-wheels 32- thedifferent shafts 29 and the Wheels 28, and feeding the ore from eachoven to the oven below and from the lowermost oven to a cart placedbelow to receive the ore.

It is evident that the different wheels may be turned by hand, ifdesired, instead of antomatically from the shaft 8, as hereinbeforedescribed. I

To the furnace 1 is attached a fire-box 44, having grate-bars 45 thereinand an ash-pit 46. The coal is placed directly, upon the gratebars 45 orfirst placed in the retorts 47 until it is coked and then dropped ontothe gratebars 45 by withdrawing the bottom of said retorts, where itburns. The heated gases pass from the fire-box 44 through the flue 48into the lowermost oven 2, thence through the flue 49 to the secondoven, thence through the fines 50, 51, 52, and 53 to the stack 54, andthence to the outer air.

In Fig. 11 I have illustrated a longitudinal section of aroasting-furnace like that hereinbefore described in combination with areverberatory smelting-furnace, in which 56 is the main body of thereverberatory furnace, 57 the fire-box, 58 the grate-bars, 59 theashpit, and 60 60 the retorts into which the coal is fed from the chute61 by lifting the slides 62, the coal passing into the retorts 60 60,where it is coked by the heated gases which pass around said retorts, ashereinafter described. The coke is pushed out of the re torts 60 ontothe grate-bars 58, where it burns, the ashes resulting from saidcombustion dropping into the ash-pit 59 and the heated gases passingthrough the flue 80, over the ore in the furnace 56, through the flue 63into the stack 64, down through the flue 65,- underground along the line66, upward through the fine 67 into the retort-oven 70, around theretorts 60, down the flue 78, underground through the fine 69 into thefire-box 44,around the retorts 47, through the flue 48, and thencethrough the ovens 2 and fines 49, 50, 51, 52,

' and 53 to the stack 54. Crushed or fine ore is put into the hoppers 6868 and fed into the furnace 56 from said hoppers. It will be seen thatby combining the reverberatory furnace 56 with the roasting-furnace 1the flames and j hot gases from said reverberatory furnace will beutilized to roast the ores in said roasting. furnace instead of passingdirectly to a stack and thence to the outside air,-wastin g the heat 1contained in said gases. The pawl-lever 35 is connected Having thusdescribed my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is-

1. A furnace for roasting ores having two or more ovens, each of saidovens having an opening in the bottom or bed thereof, and a shaft withlongitudinal blades located in each of said openings, said shaftsextending through .the wall of said furnace, and mechanism forsimultaneously rotating said shafts from the outside of said furnace,substantially as described.

2. A furnace for roasting ores, having two or more ovens, each of saidovens having an opening in the bottom or bed thereof, a shaft withlongitudinal blades located in each of said openings, said shaftsextending'through the wall of said furnace, a sprocket-wheel fast toeach of said shafts, a sprocket-chain connecting said sprocket-wheels,and means attached to one of said shafts for rotating the same.

3. A furnace for roasting ores, having two or more ovens, each of saidovens having an opening in the bottom or bed thereof, a shaft withlongitudinal blades located in each of said openings, said shaftsextending through the Wall of said furnace, at sprocket-Wheel Intestimony whereof I have hereunto set fast to each of said shafts, asprocket-chain my hand in presence of two subscribing witconnecting saidsprocket-Wheels and a pawlnesses.

and-ratchet mechanism connected to one of HARRISON B. MEECH. 5 saidshafts, whereby all of said shafts with Witnesses:

longitudinal blades are simultaneously ro- CHARLES S. GOODING,

tated. R. HENRY MARSH.

